"These are young people who study in our schools. They play in our neighborhoods. They are friends with our kids. They pledge allegiance to our flag. They are Americans in their hearts and in their minds. They are Americans in every single way but one: on paper."
Obama went on to note they are here not of their own choosing, but because their parents brought them here. They grow up, only to suddenly face sudden deportation to a land they know little about and to a language they often do not even speak.
Obama not only made a change in policy, but his words went a long ways toward persuading a nation that what is being done to these people is wrong, and must be changed.
"For all intents and purposes, they are Americans," he said. For most every time in the past someone has suggested that these people are Americans, there has been a quick and bitter response of outrage.
But, I read of no such indignation at Obama's calling them Americans. By the time the president got to calling them that, he had already built such a strong case that his listeners were much more inclined to accept the term.
Americans, then, are these young DREAMers. Let us not call them illegal aliens, but undocumented Americans. They are a paperless people, but Americans, the same.
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